
A petrol station can be an incredibly lucrative operation in South Africa – if you buy one in the correct location.
According to listings from property agents Cyrus Brokers, a major brand filling station that is currently for sale in Gauteng’s East Rand earns a net monthly profit of R62,513, while another one in the same area is bringing in R156,538.
In the Pretoria CBD there is a service stop coining it with R256,473 of clean cash a month, and in Randburg there is one not doing as well with R84,697 per month in net earnings.
In the Free State, a station is on the market offering a net monthly income of R135,886; and in the North West, there is one achieving R134,538 per month.
The Eastern Cape also seems to be a solid bet with a station on sale in this province seeing R205,711 in profits. In KwaZulu-Natal there are two up for grabs, raking in net earnings of R240,000 and R390,000, respectively.
However, the most profitable station currently on the market is in Limpopo.
While its listing does not divulge too many details, it does say that it is a major name station in the North-Eastern region of the province, boasting a net profit of R443,225 per month.
The biggest moneymakers
Looking at the various listings of filling stops around the nation, it may come as no surprise that fuel sales is the biggest moneymaker for service stations by a formidable margin.
As an example, the Limpopo-based service station reports the following monthly transaction values:
- Fuel sales – 339,741 liters per month
- Convenience store sales – R2,237,669 per month
- Lotto sales – R466,866 per month
- Electricity sales – R179,537 per month
- Airtime sales – R109,243 per month
- Gas sales – R72,237 per month
- Oil/lube sales – R 21,124 per month.
Using May’s fuel prices, we can estimate that this particular station earned anywhere from R7,256,868 to R8,659,998 last month on propellant alone, which is at least 324% of what it makes from in-store sales of things like snacks, drinks, and tobacco.
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